The European Union (EU) passed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in 2022, requiring companies to comply with interoperability regulations in 2024. In March 2024, Meta complied with his DMA, allowing interoperability of his WhatsApp and Messenger within the EU. So what is messaging app interoperability? Should businesses embrace interoperability? In this article, we'll take a look at messaging app interoperability and explore its benefits and drawbacks in more detail. .
Messaging app interoperability case studies
Let's understand it first What is interoperability? In the context of a messaging app. Consider the example of email. Send emails seamlessly from Gmail to Outlook users. You don't need to have an Outlook account to send email to Outlook users. Similarly, Outlook users can send emails to Gmail or Yahoo users without any issues. This works with all email services.
Points close to home: How UPI works in India. You can send money from PhonePe to GPay users without having a GPay account. Works with all UPI apps.
That's the essence of interoperability.a Services available Works across platforms Communicate with other third party services. Over the past few years, governments, particularly the EU, have been advocating for and asking businesses to implement interoperability in messaging apps.
This ruling could come in very handy for WhatsApp users as it will allow them to send messages to users of other messaging apps.user No need to use a specific messaging app Send or receive messages. Users can choose the messaging app that best suits their needs without having to worry about whether their contacts use the same service. Your messaging experience can be seamless.
The most important thing, Interoperability prevents platform lock-in. Apple has leveraged iMessage lock-in to bring more users into its fold. Sadly, this lock-in (also known as network effects) locks users into the platform and prevents them from leaving the platform easily. Remember when Tim Cook asked his audience to buy him an iPhone so he could send better videos to his mother?
So there's definitely a good case for introducing interoperability into messaging apps. But what are the drawbacks? Find out below.
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What are the disadvantages?
Meta enables third-party interoperability of WhatsApp and Messenger in the EU, but there are some issues to be aware of. at first, Maintaining end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is of paramount importance for interoperability compliance.
We all know that E2E encryption is enabled by default on WhatsApp, but Meta is also rolling out default E2EE on Facebook Messenger. Apart from that, Signal and Google Messages also offer his E2E encryption.The one thing all these messaging apps have in common is that they all Proven signal protocol Implement end-to-end encryption.
Meta said in a blog post that if third-party messaging apps use the same Signal protocol for E2E encryption,Maximize user security”. The company also says it can support other compatible protocols, but those protocols include “Same security guarantees as Signal”
The key here is that to maintain E2E encryption while providing interoperability, common cryptographic protocol is important. There must be no leakage when sending messages from one service to another.
“We've built a secure interoperable solution that uses Signal Protocol encryption to protect messages in transit, but without ownership of both clients (endpoints), third-party providers We cannot guarantee what will happen to messages sent or received. same promise,” says Mehta.
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This means that security remains a controversial topic when implementing interoperability for messaging apps. Needless to say, Apple's iMessage and Telegram have Various proprietary encryption protocols. Supporting a large number of messaging apps using different protocols can be a difficult task. By the way, iMessage is not part of the EU's interoperability regulations, as many people in the EU do not use its services.
What about spam?
Apart from security shortcomings, messaging apps also have concerns about spam and phishing. Unlike email services, Messaging becomes more privateSo introducing interoperability would make personal messaging a nightmare.
we already know that Your email inbox is filled with spam, phishing messages, and junk mail From almost anyone. Opening the floodgates to third-party services further expands the communication network to malicious actors for spam and phishing attacks.
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Finally: Is interoperability a good idea?
While interoperability provides convenience for users and prevents platform lock-in, the following is equally true: Maintain iron-clad security Issues that span third-party services are more difficult technical issues to resolve.Messaging apps that use different security protocols May introduce further vulnerabilities. Not to mention, spam and phishing messages can ruin your personal messaging experience.
When it comes to platform lock-in, Apple currently RCS communication protocolI And in 2024, iMessage will have RCS support. It will eventually replace the unencrypted SMS protocol as a fallback option for iMessage. That said, Apple is said to not use the Signal protocol for RCS. We plan to develop an RCS encryption standard separate from GSMA. Android messages will continue to appear as green bubbles.
As the messaging app interoperability war continues, what do you think of the EU's decision? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.